611 Building

Solon Spencer Beman
1886

The front facade

Originally housing the headquarters for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, this granite office building is designed in the Romanesque style popularized by H. H. Richardson. (The varied fenestration has parallels with his Cheney Block in Hartford Connecticut.) The front has nine bays with a central emphasis in the middle three (which are somewhat taller). The round entrance arch is flanked by marble columns with decorative carved capitals. Beman (1853-1914) was a Chicago architect.